


Clove

by 007Awesome



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Arthur can’t catch a break, Lewis is awkward, Vivi and mystery are mentioned but not present, cigarettes are mentioned, more at 11, not smoked tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-23 22:12:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16627367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/007Awesome/pseuds/007Awesome
Summary: Things were... awkward after the three of them reunited. Arthur hadn’t remembered much about the cave besides a blur of green and sharp teeth up until that point. Vivi still had holes in her memories. Lewis, for some reason, hadn’t murdered him yet.(Bit of a follow up to Near Miss but for the most part can be read by itself)





	Clove

"Since when did you smoke?"

The skittish mechanic jumped, pack tumbling out of his hands and hitting the ground. Arthur spun around to find a familiar and somewhat disapproving ghost hovering behind him. He could feel his heart trying to beat it's way out of his chest and he blew out a breath to try and calm down. 

Things were... awkward after the three of them reunited. Arthur hadn't remembered much about the cave besides a blur of green and sharp teeth up until that point. Vivi still had holes in her memories. Lewis, for some reason, hadn't murdered him yet. 

His best guess was between the running them off the road and then the subsequent demon fighting and trip to the hospital the ghost kind of lost the murder mojo. As for why he was here just in the nick of time to interrupt him in the parking lot behind his uncle’s garage? That was anyone’s guess.

Arthur sighed, frustrated with himself and bent over to pick up the cigarettes. With his flesh arm, considering the prosthetic was still jittering unpredictably. 

"Arthur."

Lewis's tone was similar to that of a stern parents, one where you knew you were in for it, whatever you did. Which considering the events of the past few weeks was downright laughable if Arthur wasn't so exhausted.

"Bad habit, I know," he grumbled, "don't have to lecture me about it." He shoved the pack into his jacket pocket, not quite brazen enough to smoke in Lewis's face.

The ghost's eyes narrowed, how he managed that with just a skull was a little unsettling. Arthur was thankful he didn't say anything else on the subject.

"Does Vivi know?"

Or not.

"Oh for-" Arthur ran a hand down his face and turned to glare at the other man. "Yes! She thinks just as highly of it as you do, not that it matters!"

The ghost seemed slightly taken aback by his outburst before scowling again. He crossed his arms and seemed to take a breath.

"She wanted to... check on you."

"And she sent you instead?"

Lewis just shrugged but they both knew the reason. Vivi had enough memories of the three of them to want to try and mend things. Arthur was lucky enough they deescalated from revenge murdering to begrudging avoidance. He certainly wasn't going to go and impose, asking to be friends again after all of this. As if this situation was something that could be fixed. Like Arthur didn't just push his best friend-

"Well," Arthur said with more forced cheer than necessary, "you can report back that I'm the same fucking mess I always have been."

Before he could make it back to the refuge of the garage, not that Lewis couldn't follow him anyways, a hand caught his shoulder and spun him around.

"When was the last time you actually slept?" 

"What?" Arthur shook off his hand and was somewhat surprised Lewis let him. "Why does that even matter?"

"Because it's four in the morning and you're out here smoking instead of at home? In bed?" Lewis explained slowly like he was a particularly stupid child.

Arthur glanced away, finding something of interest in the pavement instead. It wasn't like he hadn't tried. Running into Lewis again, discovering who he actually was, and almost dying had done something to his head, kicked started his memories. That first night back he woke up in a cold sweat, clutching the stump of his arm, unable to shake the memory of his arm moving without his say so. It was almost all he could do to try and mask his unease whenever he saw the three of them during his waking moments.

The nightmares been happening consistently since. Sometimes just bits and pieces of what happened, sometimes terrifying new 'what ifs' about what could've happened if Mystery didn't intervene when he did. More often then not he would try and find something to distract himself rather than staring at the ceiling.

So no, he hadn't been sleeping much at all.

"Why do you even care?" He settled for instead of the truth, more tired than angry anymore.

Lewis didn't seem to have anything to say to that. He was still looking at him like he was a puzzle with too many pieces, his gaze eventually settling on his missing arm.

Arthur sighed, stuffing his hand in his pocket. "Look, can you... just tell Vi I'm fine? She worries too much anyways."

He thought he might actually leave for a moment before Lewis spoke up again.

"You still wanna have that talk?" 

Arthur pauses, surprised, turning back to see the ghost glaring off at nothing in particular. Honestly he was surprised either of them remembered that in the chaos of fighting and blood loss. Lewis blustered when the mechanic just gave him an incredulous look.

"Look, I know what everyone's been telling me but it's still a little far fetched when I'm hearing it from a talking dog."

Arthur blinked. "Says the talking skeleton?"

Said talking skeleton narrowed his eyes at the joke and Arthur just shrugged. A beat passed before Arthur spoke again.

"Do you... not believe him then?"

"Don't know what I believe yet," Lewis grumbled. "Figured this would be a good start."

Arthur... wasn't expecting that. He figured Lewis would know better than anyone what the situation was and yet... The silence that stretched on started to get awkward and the ghost huffed.

"Well? I don't need sleep but I'm not waiting all night, Arthur."

"Uh," he scratched the back of his head, "yeah, sure. Just- not tonight, maybe? Don't think I can, ah, handle all of this emotional baggage right now." Arthur gave a lame, nervous laugh at the long look Lewis was giving him.

"Fine. But you better actually go to bed so we don't have a repeat of this," his tone was gruff but he wasn't scowling at him anymore so there's that at least?

"Right," Arthur said slowly, turning away for a moment only to find Leiws gone when he looked back. The ghost must've made a hasty retreat from whatever awkward train wreck this was.

Re-entering the workshop, Arthur scowled at the disassembled mess of a prosthetic on the table. Half of the wiring was fried and he might as well have gutted the thing and started over at the rate this was taking. He contemplated going back to work on it, the sooner he got it done the sooner he had two working arms again after all.

Probably wouldn't be his best idea to piss Lewis at the moment though. Glancing at the clock, he sighed and decided going back to his appartment would be a waste of time at this point. Lance wouldn't be thrilled with him spending the night on the couch here but it wasn't like it would be the first time.

Arthur kicked off his shoes and made the best pillow he could out of his jacket. This probably wasn't going to be one of his better night's but he figured it was worth it to try.

He'd be needing it soon anyways.

**Author's Note:**

> It’s late on a Wednesday night and I’m kinda sick but EH. I rewrote this about three times and I’m still not totally satisfied but I figured if I started over again nothing would be accomplished lol
> 
> The main inspiration was someone mentioning Arthur being a stress smoker and then this happened.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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